The origin story of M1’s engine covers.
Picture this: a continent where the cold persists for half the year, where snow and blizzards pose a safety hazard like no other. M1 was mandated to address winter degradation on engine components. These repairs are not only expensive but also cause delays in returning aircraft to service.
M1 had to devise a creative solution to provide a cost-effective approach that could withstand challenging weather conditions. To tackle engine component degradation, we designed, developed, manufactured, and delivered inlet and exhaust engine covers for the most common engine platforms (CFM56-5, Trent 700, GE90, GEnx, and many more). To cater to an even broader market, we are currently in the conceptual design phase for platforms such as V2500, P&W 1500, P&W 1100, and more. Unlike many other products on the market, M1 engine covers are extremely lightweight, easy to install, weather-resistant, easily foldable, and stowable in small boxes that can be carried in the aircraft cargo bay. We understand these meteorological challenges and have tested our products, leading to the conclusion that they are robust.
When designing these products, we recognized that handling was a concern for maintenance crews. We took it upon ourselves to enhance the products on the market, making them both resistant to weather changes and practical. While the market offers heavy and hard-to-handle tarps, we designed and produced an extremely lightweight tarp that doesn’t compromise on resistance, making it efficient when weather forecasts change. Addressing complaints about numerous straps causing confusion and tangling after storage, we adopted a 3-to-1 strap method to reduce the number of straps on the product, significantly improving the installation technique. In response to the need for three technicians to install a tarp on an aircraft, we aimed to reduce that to 2, recognizing that staff shortages directly impact aircraft delays. To further decrease overall installation time, we found a way to incorporate extension poles into our product, enabling technicians to install the tarp from the ground up without the need for a ladder. The last issue teams faced concerned the storage method and the sheer size of these tarps. By using an extremely lightweight material, as mentioned earlier, we addressed this concern, offering an easily foldable and stowable tarp that can be carried directly on the aircraft instead of being stored elsewhere.